Australian Chamber Orchestra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Australian Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1975 in Sydney. Every year, this ensemble presents performances of the highest standard to audiences around the world, including 10,000 subscribers across Australia. The ACO’s unique artistic style encompasses not only the masterworks of the classical repertoire, but innovative cross-artform projects and a vigorous commissioning program.

The outstanding Australian musician Richard Tognetti was appointed as Artistic Director and Lead Violin in 1990. Under his inspiring leadership, the ACO has performed as a flexible and versatile ‘ensemble of soloists’, on modern and period instruments, as a small chamber group, a small symphony orchestra, and as an electro-acoustic collective. In a nod to past traditions, only the cellists are seated – the resulting sense of energy and individuality is one of the most commented-upon elements of an ACO concert experience.

Regular international tours to Asia, Europe and the USA have drawn outstanding reviews for the ACO’s performances at many of the world’s prestigious concert halls, including Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Vienna’s Musikverein, Birmingham’s Symphony Hall and Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center. Recent festival appearances include the BBC Proms, Tanglewood, Ravinia, Interlochen and New York’s Mostly Mozart. The Australian Government recognises the ACO’s achievements by designating it as an international flagship arts company.

The ACO’s dedication and musicianship has created warm relationships with such celebrated soloists as Dawn Upshaw, Imogen Cooper, Angela Hewitt, Ivry Gitlis, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Emmanuel Pahud. In 2008 guest artists include Melvyn Tan, Katie Noonan, John Storgårds, Gondwana Voices, Steven Isserlis and Alina Ibragimova.

In recent years, the ACO has made a number of acclaimed recordings, for labels including Sony, Channel Classics, Chandos, Orfeo, Hyperion, ABC Classics, EMI and BIS. In 2005 the Orchestra collaborated with pianist Angela Hewitt on the final instalment of her 10-year project to record all of Bach’s keyboard music. This double-CD set for Hyperion was ‘CD of the Month’ for Gramophone magazine. Similar critical praise was lavished on the ACO’s recording with Emmanuel Pahud of Vivaldi’s flute concertos for EMI which received a Grammy nomination.

Richard Tognetti and the ACO have recorded Bach’s violin concertos for ABC Classics. The unaccompanied sonatas and partitas were awarded the 2006 ARIA for Best Classical Album, and the concertos were recently awarded the 2007 ARIA for Best Classical Album. The final instalment, the accompanied sonatas were released in August 2007. The Orchestra recently made another recording for BIS with trombonist Christian Lindberg for the BIS label in 2007.